DONS skipper Anderson believes his side can turn around their 2-0 first league defeat to the Spanish side, despite the gulf in resources.

Johnny Hayes duels for the ball with Joseba Zaldua of Real Sociedad but the gulf in resources between the two teams was obvious

RUSSELL ANDERSON doesn’t need his finance qualifications to work out Real Sociedad are on a different stratosphere from Aberdeen when it comes to their resources.

But the number-crunching skipper has done his homework and doesn’t think for a minute that means the Dons can’t compete with the Basque big guns this week.

Anderson – who studies finance part-time – is well aware the Pittodrie side’s figures don’t look great following Thursday’s 2-0 defeat in San Sebastian.

It wasn’t just the final sums on the board though. The scary thing was the La Liga leading lights looked like they could have deposited a few more in the goal account if they fancied.

The Dons did well enough to get through the night with their bus fare home and still have some life flickering going into this week’s second leg.

There was pain in Spain but the gulf in class was only matched by the huge chasm in wealth.

Real Sociedad have an annual budget of around £50million – that’s more than 10 times what the Dons can cough up.

And the Basque side spent more than £4.5m – more than the entire Pittodrie wage bill – just on their youth academy.

They can afford to stump up £8m for Alfred Finnbogason while the Dons haven’t written a cheque for a transfer fee since handing Birmingham £50,000 for Sone Aluko six years ago.

The clubs are operating in different financial sectors but Anderson is refusing to give up hope the Dons can achieve a Europa League windfall.

They’ve already banked nearly £1m thanks to this run to the third play-off round but they are not done just yet.

Anderson said: “Sociedad are a very good team. They played in the Champions League last season and that speaks for itself.

“They will be one of the better teams in this competition.

“Finnbogason led the line well and was busy. And their movement, not only him but their other forward players too, made it difficult.

“We’re not used to that domestically and so when you play in Europe it really tests you.

“They were what you would expect from a team playing at the top end of the Spanish league.

“They were comfortable on the ball but in saying that we limited them to very few clear-cut chances and I don’t think Jamie Langfield had too many saves to make.

“I know they will feel they could have scored a couple more and it was a big step up from the previous game for us. It can help us become better players. It might not make much difference to me but for the younger guys you would like to think they would learn from this and become better players.

“But it shows the difference in finances between a club such as Sociedad and Aberdeen – but we can compete and that is what we hope to do next week.

“Things are going to have to go our way. It is only half time and if we can get a good start next week then you never know.

“We are quietly confident. We are not going to shoot our mouths off. We never do.

“It would be disrespectful and a bit stupid to say we will get through to the next round.”

Anderson was at his stubborn, inspirational best in San Sebastian. It is on nights such as these against world class opposition when you’re reminded why Roy Keane stumped up £1m to take the Scotland centre-half to Sunderland at the peak of his powers in 2007.

The skipper was the stand-out but there was a nagging feeling some of the rest of the Dons could have done a bit more at the other end of the pitch.

Easier said than done against a mob who bashed Barcelona 3-1 and competed in the Champions League last season.

But it was a source of frustration Aberdeen never really landed a glove on the Basque side’s chin.

Anderson said: “They had the lion’s share of the possession and when you come away to a place like this then you expect that.

“It was always our plan not to be too open and to give them space to play. It worked well to an extent but after the first goal went in the game changed.

“The pressure was off them and you could see them play with a bit more freedom in the second half.

“Other than that I did think it could be our night. It is a long 90 minutes against a team like that.

“If we had retained possession of the ball a bit more it might have helped us a little bit more when it came to stop their flow of play.

“Could we have done more? Yes, I think you can level that at us. We were disciplined in the defence side of our game, which we had to be.

“But it’s disappointing we didn’t retain possession and we didn’t get up the field and at them. That is something we’ll need to address.”

What’s clear now is Aberdeen are going to need to pull something incredible out of the bag to turn this round.

Anderson issued the war cry. He wants Pittodrie packed to the rafters and if they can pinch an early goal – well, just maybe a miracle could be on the cards.

He added: “We need the Aberdeen fans to help make it as intimidating as possible.

“They are experienced players and will be used to that but if we can get the fans behind us then it will help us take the game to them.

“Hopefully, if we can score a goal then it will give us the spring to really kick on.”